Italian Renaissance

1300-1600

Main Idea

In Italy the growth of wealthy trading cities

and new ways of thinking helped lead to a

rebirth of the arts and learning. This era

became known as the Renaissance.

The Italian Renaissance

Michelangelo’s painting was different from the art of the Middle Ages, and only one

way in which European society began changing after the 1300s.

• 1300, Black Death, starvation,

warfare had overtaken Europe

• Catastrophic events, enormous

loss of life may have led to

changes of the 1300s

• Decrease in population led to:

– Increase in food production

– Decline in food prices

– More money to spend

– Specialization in products

Changes in Society

• Urban areas specialized,

particularly in Italy

• Italy divided into several large

city-states in north, various

kingdoms, Papal States south

• Catholic Church, nobles,

merchants, artisans dominated

society in city-states

• Many sought to display new

wealth with knowledge of arts

The Rise of City-States

The Beginning of the Renaissance

As the economy and society changed, new ideas began to appear. This period

of interest and developments in art, literature, science and learning is known

as the Renaissance, French for “rebirth.”

• Venetian ships

carried goods for

trade and Greek

scholars seeking

refuge

• Scholars brought

ancient works

thought to be lost

Inspiration from the

Ancients • Italians who could

read looked for

more information

• Read Arabic

translations of

original texts

• Searched libraries,

found lost texts

New World of Ideas

• As they read,

began to think

about philosophy,

art, science in

different ways

• Began to believe in

human capacity to

create, achieve

Different

Viewpoints

Renaissance Ideas

Italian States

• The civilization of the Italian Renaissance

was urban, centered on towns that had

become prosperous from manufacturing,

trade, and banking.

• Italians had acquired considerable wealth,

and some of this wealth was used to

support writers, scholars, and artists.

• During the Renaissance, Italy remained

divided politically. In northern Italy, the

city-states of Florence, Milan, and Venice

became major centers of the Renaissance

civilization.

• Rome dominated the Papal States of central

Italy, while the Kingdom of the Two

Sicilies embraced most of southern Italy.

Italian States • Florence

– Oligarchy

– Medici family

– Savonarola

• Milan

– Condottiere

– Spanish empire

• Venice

– Great Council

• Doge

– Monopoly on spice and luxury trade

• Papal States

– Renaissance Popes

• Julius II

– Kingdom of the

Two Sicilies

• Poor land

• Spanish empire

Milan, Florence

• Milan, west of Venice, based economy on agriculture, silk, weapons

• Florence, to south, famous for banking, cloth

• Monarchs appealed to Florentine bankers for money to fund wars

• Merchants refined raw wool into fine cloth

• Bankers, merchants created city to rival any in Europe

Venice

• With access to sea, Venice built economy, reputation on trade

• Had long history of trading with other ports on Mediterranean Sea

• Shipbuilding prospered, sailors traveled to Near East

• Wealthy Venetian merchants built unique city, “work of art”

• Early 1500s life in Italy seemed insecure, precarious

• Church no longer served as source of stability, peace

• Form of humanism developed from Petrarch’s ideas; focus was

secular, was worldly rather than spiritual

• Humanists argued that

individual achievement,

education could be fully

expressed only if people used

talents, abilities in service of

cities.

Service

• Ideal Renaissance man came to

be “universal man,”

accomplished in classics, but

also man of action, who could

respond to all situations.

Renaissance Man

Secular Writers

How to Act

• Italian diplomat Baldassare Castiglione wrote book, The Courtier

• Described how perfect Renaissance gentleman, gentlewoman should act

• Book includes fictional conversation between duke, guests

How to Rule

• Philosopher, statesman Niccolò Machiavelli also wrote influential book

• Experiences with violent politics influenced opinions on how governments should

rule in The Prince

Castiglione’s Advice

• Castiglione gave nobles new rules for refined behavior in humanist society

• Speak of serious, as well of amusing subjects; know Latin, Greek

• Be well-acquainted with poetry, history; be able to write prose, poetry

Examples of Renaissance Men

Machiavelli Machiavellian advice seemed to encourage harsh treatment of

citizens, rival states

• Describes men as “ungrateful, fickle, liars, and deceivers”

• Advises rulers to separate morals from politics

– Power, ruthlessness more useful than idealism

– Ruler must do whatever necessary to maintain political power, even if cruel

• Machiavelli’s theory that “the end justifies the means” deviated from accepted views of correct behavior

• Idea that state an entity in itself, separate from its ruler, became foundation for later political philosophy

Italian Renaissance Art

• Religious scenes focused on expressions

• Holy as human

• God’s beauty in world

• Neo-Platonism

• Nude body

• Uniqueness - self-portraits

• Pagan myths as Christian icons

• Individual-secular-profane

Renaissance artists wanted to paint the natural world as realistically as

possible.

The arts a reflection of the new humanist spirit

Medieval artists—idealized and symbolic representations

Renaissance artists depicted what they observed in nature

• Medieval times, anonymous artists

who worked for church created art

• Renaissance artists worked for

whoever offered them highest price

• Buyers of art, patrons, might be

wealthy individuals, city

governments, or church

Patrons of the Arts

Renaissance Art

• Wealthy individuals competed,

displaying wealth, modernity

through purchase of artworks

• Florence, Lorenzo de Medici

supported most talented artists

• Milan, ruling Sforza family

benefactors of artists, others

Competition Among Patrons

• Highly talented in all fields

• His paintings are still studied and admired

• Wrote out ideas, filling 20,000 pages of notes

• His interests, enthusiasm boundless

• Studied anatomy

• Age 24, won fame with Pietà,

sculpture of Jesus’ mother Mary

holding son’s dead body

• Sculpture communicates grief,

love, acceptance, immortality

Michelangelo

• Marble statue of David

• Most famous painting, artwork

on ceiling of Sistine Chapel

• Scenes from Old Testament

considered one of greatest

achievements in art history

Sculpture, Painting

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci • First Italian artist to use oil paints

• Mona Lisa

• The Last Supper

• The Virgin of the Rocks

• Religious matter in secular and

humanized fashion

Leonardo da Vinci

• Studying fossils

• Anatomy from

dissections

• First accurate

description of human

skeleton

• Remained on paper

Raphael Santi • Humanized Madonna

paintings

• Sistine Madonna

• School of Athens

Michelangelo Buonarotti • Sistine Chapel

– Nine scenes of OT from

Creation to Flood

• The Last Judgment

• David

• Moses

• Pieta

• Dying Slave

• Night

Michelangelo Buonarotti